A/N: I do not own the Teen Titans, Dunkin Donuts, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tom Waits' songs, Nietzsche's or Derrida's rights to their works, Under Armor, Honda, Indian Motor Cycles, Pimp My Ride, Ford, Starbucks, and any other thing that I obviously don't own that I will make reference to. Also, I like Pirates of the Caribbean, Daily Bar and Grill, I just needed a reason for them to leave the movie theater.
IMPORTANT: In public, when they're not on duty, the Titans wear casual cloths, no masks, nothing, and Cy wears a synthetic skin, so thing of like a Terminator 2 thing, were its liquid metal and it covers Cy so he looks normal, and BB has a holographic watch like night crawler, so he looks normal. Also, when they aren't in uniform I will refer to them by their real names.
"One can not love without opening oneself, and opening oneself, that's taking the risk of suffering. One does not have control."
-Isabelle Adjani
The sounds of Tom Waits filled the room, along with cigarette smoke. The odd sounds of untuned instruments and scratchy deep vocals seem to dance around the smoke before reaching his ears. He sat in a comfortable brown chair with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He took a drag of his cigarette, blew a few smoke circles and then drank the whole glass of whiskey and filled it again.
This was relaxing time for him these days. He had picked up the bad habit of smoking from…well, he couldn't really remember…in fact, he couldn't remember how long he had been drinking like this…he couldn't remember a damn thing at the moment. It must be the whiskey.
Tonight was different though, tonight he wasn't alone. He had no godly idea why he invited her, but he did, and she was there. She sat there drinking a screwdriver. He looked over at her and saw her eyes closed and her body slightly moving to the music as the instrumental track of the Rain Dogs album came on.
"What do you think?" he asked her. She immediately stopped moving and looked at the black haired young man.
"You did a good job of putting together the tracks from Rain Dogs, Used Songs, and Real Gone albums," she said it with the slightest drop emotion. He nodded in a yeah-I-did-do-a-good-job sort of way. He sighed as he looked at the clock. It was time for her to leave.
"Raven, its time to go," he said in a dry tone. She looked up at him as he stood up and walked to the door and opened it for her. She nodded; she respected his need for privacy.
"Don't forget to read that Nietzsche book," she said it as more of an order than a reminder. She had given him 'Beyond Good and Evil' it was a rare first edition that had taken her 3 years to come by, and a lot of money, but she knew Robin would take care of it, unlike Starfire. She had tried to introduce the alien to Derrida, but she got frustrated with his ideas and accidentally blew it up.
Robin nodded and waved his hand goodnight, Raven nodded back as the door closed. She walked back to her room. She put on Green Grass, yet another Waits song. Raven wanted to keep Robin company tonight, she knew he was going through a lot of pain, but then again she wasn't really known for comforting people, but she did what she could. Robin was a lot deeper than most thought. He wasn't a one dimensional black and white good and evil kind of guy. As she found out tonight, he had several three subject notebooks filled with thoughts on good and bad and crime fighting and life. She thought it would do him good to read Nietzsche, Derrida, Plato, Socrates, and others, so he could be introduced to new ideas. She knew he wouldn't agree with all of them, but that was ok, as long as it got him thinking. Raven took a shower, got in pajamas all that fun stuff and collapsed on her bed. It was 5 in the morning as she was dead tired, hanging out with Robin was nice, but damn it was long.
Robin started cleaning his personal rec room. He dumped the ash tray, cleaned the glasses, put the alcohol and other drinks in his mini fridge, turned off the music, and put away his notebooks and other books. After all that he tried to go to sleep, but he couldn't. When he looked at the time, it almost seven in the morning. He sighed and got up. He decided that he might as well eat something, so he went to the kitchen and made some French toast. After he ate it, he made some coffee.
Now what? He decided to go out and get donuts for everyone, might as well, right? He went to the garage and took his car to the nearest Dunkin Donuts. When he parked in front and he then realized he was in nothing but shorts…shit. He wondered if they would kick him out because of no shoes no shirt, but then he thought they wouldn't care anyway. So he got out of the car and went in. He got two dozen assorted donuts. As he thought, they didn't care.
By the time Robin got back to the Tower it was eight forty-five. No one was up. He placed the assorted donuts on the kitchen table leaving a note that there are two dozen, and not to eat all of them and share, especially Gar and Cy. After that Robin went into his personal rec room, and started reading the book Raven gave him and started to take notes and right things down in a notebook.
Raven got up and looked at the clock; it read nine twenty-six. She decided to get up, so she took a shower, got dressed in casual cloths and headed downstairs. She entered the kitchen and saw Beastboy and Vick eating donuts. Where did they get donuts f- but Raven's thought was cut off by the green changeling.
"Raven! Look at what Robin got for us! Donuts!" He waved a jelly donut in her face.
"He got a whole assorted bunch too," added the half human half machine hero. Raven looked at the donuts, she only like one type of donut, and she doubted if Robin picked it. To her amazement, it was there. Coconut. No, two coconut donuts. She had a small smile on her face, she had mentioned it out loud when they were at a Dunkin Donuts a couple of weeks ago, and of course they didn't have her donut. She took the two and put them on a plate and made some coffee for herself, since the tea was out.
Raven sat on the couch in the television room eating her two coconut donuts slowly and sipping her coffee while reading White Oleander. She was at the part when the main character was adopted by the Christian actress and her husband. She liked the book, and had been reading it for about a week now, she would have been farther through it but when she initially came under possession of the book a huge crime spree happened in the city, so she didn't have much time for herself.
Robin left his room, stretching his back and neck. Reading and taking notes killed his back, with all the leaning down, writing, and getting out books which to reference too as well as looking things up online and in dictionaries and thesauruses. It was about twelve thirty four. It had been a unusual quite day, not alarms, no big criminal activity that the police needed assistance with. Maybe today would be a q-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! He spoke too soon; Robin hung his head in dread. Ok, here we go again he thought. He raced to the garage to his R-Cycle after getting in his uniform. He raced to the scene of the crime, Cyborg and BB following in the T-car, and Raven and Starfire going by air.
"Ok, here's the deal Titans," started Robin over the intercom, "We are dealing with a 6'1, 160 pound guy, medium brown hair, who has a sword and a semi-automatic machine gun. He is robbing a computer lab in eastern downtown. The cops have him cornered on the roof, but he has a hostage. A 5'5, 130 pound girl with long light brown hair. We are going in at ground level" Everyone confirmed what they had to do.
They arrived about two blocks from the building; they wanted to go in without the criminal detecting them.
"Ok, change of plans," Robin informed the team, after a police officer gave him two maps and told him some new information "Cyborg, the building's power can be cut off from their power generators under the building, there is a sewer entrance, here's the map and what you need to do, wait for my cue" Robin handed Vick the map the police officer gave him.
"Got it," Cyborg went to the nearest sewer entrance and dropped in.
"Starfire, Beastboy, you two are going to give us aerial view, and while me and Raven try to get him on the roof top, make sure he doesn't have any buddies to pick him up, and once we get him on the roof top, and you have made sure there are no accomplices to help him escape, you can come down and help us. Also, Star, I want you to remain hidden so no one can spot you, and BB, become a small flying animal so no one suspects you," The tow nodded and went off.
"Ok, here's what we are going to do," Robin said as he unrolled the second map on the T-Car, "You and me are going to go into the building, Your going to try to sneak up behind this guy, grab the girl, get her to a safe place, while I take care of this guy, then you'll come back, ok?" He asked as he pressed a button on his utility belt and all of a sudden his costume was pure black. Raven nodded.
Robin and Raven went into the building. Raven thought about how these days their missions were by far more tactical than the bust the bad guy save the day type of approach when they were 16. Robin told Cyborg to cut the security cameras right before they entered. They got about ¾ though the building when he had Cyborg cut all the power. When they got within about fifty feet of the guy, who was behind the door that led to the roof, he gave the signal to Raven to get the girl. Raven went in her shadow form and went into the wall; she got behind the guy and grabbed the girl. She pulled the girl into her shadow form and placed her outside of the building with the paramedics and then went back inside.
Once Raven had the girl, and the man seemed shocked that she just disappeared into the wall, Robin took his shot. He jumped at him, foot forward. The man caught it and flung Robin through the door and on the roof. This guy knew he was coming, but how? Robin immediately got up, he saw the man point his gun at him from the protection of the stairwell. Robin jumped up and threw a bird-a-rang, slicing the barrel of the gun.
The man ran at Robin with full speed, Robin jumped over him, but the man was too quick, the man turned on a dime, grabbed Robin's foot and shoved him into the ground. Raven appeared behind the guy and was ready to strike, but he was ready first. He grabbed her cape from behind and flung her into the stairwell.
BB and Starfire came down to help, but he was once again ready for the Titans. He threw a gas bomb at Star, which knocked out. Beastboy changed into a tiger and charged at him, but the man had hit Beastboy with a tranquilizer dart that could knock out a mammoth, which was what BB was going to turn into when he was hit, but it was no use.
Robin got back to his feet and took out his Bo staff. He had gotten Robin very angry, Robin charged at him, and when the man dodged his first strike, Robin dropped down and tripped him with the staff. Robin had the upper hand now, Robin was caught off guard at first, but not this time.
Robin was going to deliver the KO blow, but he caught the staff in his hand, and held his death grip on it even when he turned on the electric shock. He winced at first but ended up taking the staff from Robin. He threw it over the building, and using Robin's shock to his advantage, he dropped to one knee, grabbed Robin's leg and came back up, head butting him in the chest, knocking Robin over and landed himself on top of Robin. (In wrestling that is called a shooting). He then picked up Robin and threw him at Raven and Cyborg who were just coming up the stairwell, only to be knocked down the stairwell, by their leader. Robin recovered, but only in time to see the man get into a helicopter and fly off, but the pilot was the girl! There was never any hostage! He used her to get Robin alone, and the Titans off guard! That BASTARD!
The team regrouped at the lobby of the building, after BB and Star were woken up, Raven healed herself and her team and Robin got his staff back. Robin spent a good twenty minutes arguing with the sergeant about how the police did not stop the helicopter. After Robin had stopped yelling at the officer, and the officer stopped yelling at Robin, the Titans went home to review tape on this guy.
At the Tower, Robin kept talking about how they could get this guy next time, when Raven noticed something.
"He seems to fight almost effortlessly, half the time his eyes have no life in them, and the other half they're closed,"
"A robot?" suspected Cy.
"No, he moves to fluid, with too much ease, but he's obviously has been trained from a very young age, and he's done a lot of research on us" Robin commented.
"Maybe he is a Gunzaman?" suggested Starfire, and as usual,
"Um…Star, what is a Guna-whatcha-ma-thing?" asked Gar, who was totally and completely befuddled.
"On my planet, when I was just a little girl, there were reported sightings of Gunzamen. They are a very powerful and deceitful race. They go from planet to planet stealing alien technology for their own use,"
"So, the planet is one big united military city?" asked Cyborg, Star shook her head.
"No, they all are selfish, and compete for dominance amongst each other and other alien races, they develop their own cyber suit that enhances their abilities,"
"Are these like normal abilities, or do they have powers?" asked Beastboy
"They have several 'powers' they can see split seconds into the future during combat, or high-adrenaline situations, they can also stand extreme pain during these high adrenaline situations, along with healing abilities. The best tactics my people have found in combating these people are to strike when they are calm, and to defeat them as quickly as possible before their adrenaline get to the level were they can access their power."
That's why he knew how I was going to strike, thought Robin; his powers allowed him to read me like a book.
"Star," Robin started, "What happens when their adrenaline peeks?"
"Then they are surely invincible, they can see clear into the future, and the only hope to calm them down is to try to confuse him by a huge bombardment of attacks from multiple people, and they cannot be coordinated, for is they are, the Gunzaman will be able to see the tactic, and exploit it"
"So, it gets confused because it sees too many futures of how the people are going to attack?" Robin asked.
"Yes."
"But how do we tell if it's a Gunzaman?" inquired Raven.
"The only sure way I know is to see if they use one of their suites against you, and the suits are unmistakable, if you know what you are looking at, that is"
Then, for the next hour, Starfire explained how their suites looked, and the team discussed multiple tactics for attacking a 'Gunzaman.' At about three p.m. they decided that they had spent enough time on the issue, and they should relax now. Well, everyone but Robin thought so. He decided he watch this guy a bit longer, and maybe come up with a few more strategies.
At around six o'clock, he finally turned off the tape, and put away his notes and went to get something to eat. The other Titans were in the living room when Robin walked in.
"Hey, we were just looking for you, Robin. We're going to go out and catch Pirates of the Caribbean, and a bit of pizza, you in?" asked Cyborg.
"I'm not sure," Robin hesitated, he didn't hear good thing about the movie and he didn't particularly feel like going out at the moment.
"It'll be fun," said Raven. Wow was all Robin thought when she said that. Raven, fun, what? Well, if Raven was trying to get him to tag along, then he must really be wanted.
"Ok, let me change," Richard ran upstairs and came down in dark blue jeans and a black muscle T-shirt. Raven was wearing a dark purple skirt that went down to her knees, and s black tank top. Vick wore dark blue jeans and a blue Under Armor T-shirt. Gar wore tan cargo pants and a short sleeved Hawaiian button up shirt and aviators. Star wore a skirt that went half way down her thighs, and a pink tank.
"Ok, should we go in the van?" suggested Vick.
"No, the AC is broken!" complained Gar.
"Since when?" Vick glared at him.
"Ummm…since last week when I broke it?" he gave a nervous chuckle.
"I'm gonna kill you," Vick continued to glare at Gar.
"We'll just take two cars, ok?" suggested Dick, who was trying to avoid an argument.
"Fine," grunted Vick. He really wanted to use the van because he just modified it and gave it all the best stuff, and he had eight tv's in it! It looked like it had just come out of a Pimp My Ride show!
Vic went with Gar in his Honda Hybrid, while Richard and Star went in Raven's Ford Focus. They arrived at the theater about ten minutes before the time it was supposed to start, but everyone knew there would be about fifteen minutes of previews. They went in, bought tickets, Vic and Gar got seats while Dick, Raven, and Star got drinks popcorn, ect.
Richard sat there and wondered what the hell was going on in this movie? He understood the plot, unlike Starfire, who asked a question every ten seconds and made comments, but it just didn't seem likely, why couldn't Will just grab the compass from Jack and get back so he could free Elizabeth? Things just didn't make any sense. After a while he got bored. He started looking around the theater, to see people's reaction's to the movie. Everyone seemed please, except him…and Raven.
"Hey, you wanna leave?" Richard whispered to Raven, who was sitting next to him.
"Yes," she said rather bluntly.
"We're going, this movie is boring, see you at home," Richard told Vic, he nodded while Gar gave him a look as if to say what-are-you-talking about-this-movie-rocks, Starfire was too busy admiring Orlando Bloom to notice. Raven and Richard left the theater and went to the Starbucks down the block. Richard got a coffee while Raven got a hot chocolate.
"God, that movie sucked!" exclaimed Richard.
"Yeah, it was pretty bad,"
"It was worse than bad, it was awful!"
"Yeah," Raven gave a slight smile and a giggle, "it kinda was," What? Richard thought, Raven, smiling? Giggling? He kind of felt proud of himself for making her smile and giggle.
"Oh, I read almost all of your Nietzsche book, and a few more works that I looked up online. I think he's getting at perfection through forcible self assertion, right?" Raven blinked a few times in amazement, he must be a faster reader than she was, but that would make sense since of all the detective work her does, he probably is used to having to look and remember thing quickly.
"Yeah, he is, if you were able to pick up on Nietzsche so quick, maybe you should read Derrida. He's a lot more complicated, because he just doesn't plain write, he…well, it's hard to explain but you'll see." Raven and Richard continued to talk about philosophy and other things, like life in general, music, why bad guys have really outlandish costumes some times. At about forty five minutes, they headed across the street to a bar and grill called Daily Bar and Grill. It was a sports bar primarily, but no games were on tonight so it was a nice place to eat.
Raven ordered a hamburger and fries, while Richard got a double cheeseburger and fries. When Raven heard Richard's order, she thought oh, no, he's gonna eat just like Gar and Vic, but to her astonishment, he was actually a very polite eater, not talking with his mouth full or anything. After they ate, they started drinking.
At about eleven, when the place was closing, and more than their share of alcoholic beverages, they headed home. Like any responsible person, Raven would never drive under the influence of alcohol, but the benefit of being a Titan was that he car had autopilot, so she didn't actually drive. Richard and Raven sat in the back seat while driver after driver either got freaked out, or tried to ignore the fact that this car was driving by itself. Raven and Dick were laughing and having a good time one second, and the next, they were having a tongue wrestling match. What's going on? Raven thought, but she quickly dismissed her thoughts and worries, because Richard felt so good. God, Richard thought, she is amazing at this! He felt every curve, every inch or Raven, as she felt him.
When they reached the Tower they hurried out of the car and Raven lead Richard to her room, kissing all the way. When they walked in, all of a sudden all the candles in Raven's room lit up. She led him to her bed and forced him to sit down, while she got on top of him. Raven ripped off Richard's shirt, every muscle in Dick was perfectly toned. She ran her hands from his pecks to his abs, he was so warm. Richard took advantage of this moment to flip her over so he was on top. He started kissing her jaw bone, then neck, then collar bone, all the while getting under her shirt. Raven moaned in pleasure and arched her back up in enjoyment of his kisses. Then something broke, her mirror shattered. SHIT! Raven thought, she all of a sudden regained logical thought and threw Robin off of her, with her shirt half off. She pulled the covers over her.
"GET OUT!" she shouted with anger, she couldn't feel these emotions, it would wreck havoc in the city, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS RICHARD?" she started crying. Of course, Richard was still rather drunk, and was entirely confused what made her so angry, and why she was yelling at him.
"Wha?" he asked in a drunken voice, "You lost me,"
"Just get you DRUNK ASS OUT, NOW!" she yelled, pointing at the door. This pissed Dick off. He glared at her for a second, turned to the door and stomped to his room.
To Be Continued
A/N: I hoped you liked it, there will be other chapters, all review welcomed, no matter if your praising me or bashing me.
